Transcript 5th Meeting of the INTOSAI Working Group on Key National Indicators

5th Meeting of the INTOSAI Working
Group on Key National Indicators
A performance audit on
indicators measuring fiscal long
term sustainability
Ulrike KATTERL, SAI of Austria
Content
•
Scope of the audit
•
Sustainability
•
S2-Indicator
•
Additional costs of an ageing population
•
Data coverage and quality
•
Date requirements
•
ACA recommendations
•
Lesson learnt
Ulrike KATTERL, SAI of Austria,
Scope of the audit
•
Performance audit on the national budget
planning process: Focus on long term
budgeting, i.e. fiscal sustainability
•
Legal obligations to pursue sustainable public
finances: constitutional law; national budget law;
EU regulations
•
Risk: „Sustainability gap“ which can result from
demographic developments
•
„S2“ – Indicator to measure long term fiscal
sustainability challenges that countries face
Ulrike KATTERL, SAI of Austria,
Sustainability
Sustainability relates to the ability of a
government to assume the financial burden of its
debt currently and in the future
The sustainability indicators provide a firm basis
to identify the size and the main source of risks to
public finance sustainability in a long-term
perspective
Ulrike KATTERL, SAI of Austria,
S2 indicator
S2 indicator:
shows the durable adjustment of the current primary
balance required to fulfil the infinite horizon
intertemporal budget constraints, including paying for
any additional expenditure arising from an ageing
population
It can be decomposed into
•
a part that relates to the starting fiscal position and
•
a part that relates to the additional costs of an
ageing population
Ulrike KATTERL, SAI of Austria,
Additional costs of an ageing population
•
Public pensions expenditures
•
Healthcare expenditures
•
Long-term care expenditures
Ulrike KATTERL, SAI of Austria,
Data coverage and quality
Austria transmits data on pensions, health care
and long term care to the European Commission
(EC). The EC services carry out –based on these
data - the so called „ageing projections“.
The audit pursued by the ACA showed that the
data coverage and quality can be improved.
This is important as the data coverage and quality
determine the significance of the projection
results.
Data requirements I
Public pensions expenditures:
•
Some expenditures not directly linked to pension
benefits (as for rehabilitation, administrative costs,
etc.) are not included in the projections. These other
pension expenditures make up for approximately
0.9% of GDP.
•
Means-tested minimum pensions through social
assistance scheme (“Ausgleichszulagen”) are
excluded (0.3% of GDP).
•
Unclear defining of pension payments for civil
servants of the states and municipalities e.g.
teachers of the states compared to other civil
servants of the states
Ulrike KATTERL, SAI of Austria,
Data requirements II
Health care expenditures:
•
No age- and gender- related information
regarding outpatient clinic (ambulance); just
lump-sum consideration possible
Ulrike KATTERL, SAI of Austria,
Data requirements III
Long-term care expenditures
•
No cross-states comparability possible
regarding in-kind transfers (nursery homes, etc.)
•
Classification problems among care
expenditures and social benefits
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Spending on „home care“ difficult to illustrate
(compared to institutional care)
ACA Recommendations
•
Improve data coverage, notably data generated
by the states (data on teachers employed by the
states, spending on long-term care, health
expenditures)
•
Enhance data quality, i.e. improved age-related
information (e.g. hospitals)
•
Improved cooperation among the federal level
and the states to ease the illustration of the
fiscal sustainability of the economy as a whole
Lesson learnt
It is difficult to evaluate
indicators per se,
however, promising to evaluate
the underlying data.
Ulrike KATTERL, SAI of Austria,
Ulrike KATTERL
[email protected]
Phone: 0043 711 71 - 8620
Ulrike KATTERL, SAI of Austria,